advice needed on finishing steer

[Louisa Gidney]

A chap who is using one of my bulls has an over 30 month steer and asked my opinion on whether it was fit to kill. Personally, I'd have had it away over a year ago. It's a big plain beast and I think it needs a bit of finish. I've never fed a housed steer to finish at this time of year, so I can't suggest how much cake or other feed it would need daily and for how long. Advice welcomed to pass on, I don't think the chap is a computer user.

[Jac]

If it has been kept short then getting it to eat in sufficient quantities to put weight on in a short amount of time may be difficult. Contra to popular belief top quality haylage ad lib is a good start together with a kilo and a half of beef nuts daily split into a couple of feeds.